The overpopulation of geese in New York City is going to help those in need in Pennsylvania this summer, according to a spokesman for the New York Department of Environmental Protection.

Last summer, 1,676 Canada geese were slaughtered in an effort to control the city's goose population and improve aviation safety, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. But this year, instead of being sent to landfills, the geese will be transported to Pennsylvania and used to feed the hungry there, DEP spokesman Farrell Sklerov said.

The USDA reached out to Pennsylvania on the city's behalf since New York state does not currently have a system in place to donate slaughtered geese to shelters, whereas Pennsylvania does. "It's something the city had always wanted to do, but there wasn't a process in place in New York," Sklerov said. "We're hopeful that by next year we should be able to feed people in New York."

For this year, the city will cover the cost of transporting the geese to Pennsylvania, where they will be processed and distributed to food banks, shelters, and other places that feed those in need, according to Sklerov.

"The city's main priority is the protection of the flying public, so if there are large pockets of geese near airports we will take the same steps as previously, but if we can use the geese for those in need, we thought it would be worthwhile to do so," Sklerov said.

Meanwhile, animal rights activists still oppose killing geese to control the population. In a statement, the ASPCA said, "The ASPCA strongly recommends a combination of non-lethal alternatives in order to prevent circumstances that call for the elimination of large populations of Canada geese." They did not comment specifically on the new plan to donate the geese to those in need.

According to the DEP, the USDA is conducting site surveys to determine where the geese are and how many there are around New York City this season.

soundoff(347 Responses)

Farrell Sklerov can't say how many dead geese could go to a food bank – until some expensive testing has been carried out to check for environmental toxins – such as the mercury which was found to be contaminating geese destined for a food bank in NJ last year – but they went to a land fill because there was too much mercury in them.

New York uses pesticides in its parks so you have to wonder how much the birds gobbled up or drank as it ran off into their water.

For the naive and informed talking about eating geese – this is wild game which did not grow up in the safe protected controlled environment of a factory farm. Geese are sponges for any pollutant or toxin in their environment and in fact wild game is not medically recommended for pregnant women and anyone with compromised immune systems.

The fact Sklerov keeps trying to justify this goose killing by using the poor as trash cans just makes him and them look more deranged. And BTW how many mouths does a six week old gosling feed; I bet it is not even worth it to test and slaughter them and they simply go straight to the landfill.

The goose that you talk about as being very tasty taste like turkey only greasier wrong and wrong again now these people are right if they are talkinG
about tame goose and duck but wild if prepared right taste like med rare steak but cook wild goose or duck well done and you have a tasty piece of tuff liver

What is wrong with all of you? What is this world coming to?
Planes are man-made, geese are in their zone, the air is their home,
as nature intended it to be! Why not find another solution to block
the engine's passage ways so the geese won't get in? NO, lets kill
the geese instead and get rid of them and feed them to the poor!
This is beyond disturbing! Your government should be feeding the poor
with all the taxes they ram up your behind, but no lets use up the money
for war instead of taking care of your own, and lets kill the geese
because their in our way.. because the big corporations wont spend
any money to find other solutions to this problem.
no its sick

About This Blog

This blog – This Just In – will no longer be updated. Looking for the freshest news from CNN? Go to our ever-popular CNN.com homepage on your desktop or your mobile device, and join the party at @cnnbrk, the world's most-followed account for news.